Colleague Chat is now Live for ALL BiggerPockets PRO and PLUS Users!

[Scott Trench]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Pro and Plus users can now chat with any BiggerPockets Members that they are colleagues with! 

In the bottom right corner of your screen you'll see the blue "Colleague Chat" box. Go ahead and send one of your connections a message and try it out!

If you find any bugs or errors in the messaging system, either reply to this thread here or send them to me (perhaps via chat ;) ).

To learn more, watch this quick video:

Oh, and here's my first chat with Josh:

[Jerry W.]

I have used it once, it appears to log a message if the person is not on.  I seem to only be able to use it when in pro sections

[Account Closed]

recommend somehow having a chat room tab in there as well, would be nice to be able to have live conversations. That would honestly be used the most I bet. Would be a good way to optionally have live conversations with non-colleagues. 

[Brian Burke]

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the site is virtually unusable in Safari on an iPad since chat was launched? Pages take forever to load and scrolling is almost impossible. Can't close the chat box either. Since I use BP almost exclusively on an iPad, I'm off the grid until it works on an iPad again! :(

[Steve Babiak]

Originally posted by @Brian Burke:

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the site is virtually unusable in Safari on an iPad since chat was launched? Pages take forever to load and scrolling is almost impossible. Can't close the chat box either. Since I use BP almost exclusively on an iPad, I'm off the grid until it works on an iPad again! :(

Brian, I have complained about this feature on iPhone using safari, very similar to what you just wrote. They disabled for iPhone somehow, must not have done so for iPad. @Robert Perry looks like Brian has an issue to be addressed ...

[Brian Burke]

Great observation @Steve Babiak .  Trying on my iPhone now and there is no chat and the site works fine. Not so on the iPad. Phone's too small so I'm still off the grid until it's fixed or I buy a huge pair of magnifying glasses. LOL

[Roy N.]

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

recommend somehow having a chat room tab in there as well, would be nice to be able to have live conversations. That would honestly be used the most I bet. Would be a good way to optionally have live conversations with non-colleagues. 

My recommendation is still for an XMPP aware server (why re-invent the wheel, use an proven and long established chat server) and then allowing BP members to use their own chat clients.  This would allow us to dismiss the chat box from our screen, yet still be able to participate.

That said, the idea of moving the chatbox to a separate tab - and just having growl type pop-up notifications - may be quite usable as well.

[Robert Perry]

@Brian Burke

 Added some rate limiting for the background tasks of the chat. It seems to help with mobile devices in my test environment. I'll deploy soon and see if it helps on the live site.

[Joshua Dorkin]

Guys - Have you noticed a difference since the changes that Rob and Co have implemented?

[Mirza Strujo]

@Joshua Dorkinthe chat feature is great. I like that it seems to store your previous conversations.

[Brian Burke]

@Joshua Dorkinmaybe @Robert Perryhasn't launched it yet because I see no change.  I'll check back later today!

[Scott Trench]

Thank you for the feedback everyone!  I have passed on your suggestions to Rob @Steve Babiak and @Brian Burke !

[Brian Burke]

@Joshua Dorkin and @Scott Trench I just checked back.  It's about 20% better, and if I close the chat icon (something I sometimes can do and sometimes it won't close) its about 40% better but the site is still so slow I can't really use it. Even typing out this comment took forever.